The Wen family was good at shipbuilding but that was all. They weren’t the most powerful sea merchants, the most powerful sea merchant at present was Cheng Yongzhen.

Cheng Yongzhen gathered a group of fellow villagers from Pingzhou Province to do sea trade. Over the past 20 years, he has become the largest sea merchant. Being able to do this was not only related to his ability but also to the local officials that supported him.

“Cheng Yongzhen is very capable and wants to be an official. For this reason many officials in Minnan Province and Pingzhou Province are his good friends and give him support. That’s why he was able to gather people and deal with pirates who killed and plundered, so there are no longer pirates along the coast. 

In recent years, he and the officials of Pingzhou Province had become hostile and Cheng Yongzhen began to take his men to the islands. Just a few months ago he became the king of the islands and started to call himself King Ping.” Wen Ming said.

After Jiang Zhen began to work as a sea merchant, he naturally started to pay attention to other sea merchants, including Cheng Yongzhen.

According to his understanding, Cheng Yongzhen and the people under him were somewhat similar to the Liang Shan outlaws of the Marsh. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_Margin)

The court has a sea ban and they are doing illegal business, but they were still bent on getting the recognition of the imperial court, hoping that the imperial court would enlist them . . . Of course, this was also the idea that people of this era would inevitably have.

People always felt that being an official was the best way to live.

“He actually did this?” Jiang Zhen was a little surprised.

“Yes.” Wen Ming said: “He has started to act like this so the court has started to pay attention to him. I just don’t know if the court will agree to recognize him like he wants.”

“It’s hard to say.” Jiang Zhen said: “In the future, we should also be more careful.”

Jiang Zhen did not just want to make money as a sea merchant, in fact… he also wanted to find a place to go overseas.

He now has the Jinzhen Escort Agency and sea ships so if he finds a place to settle down overseas, he will be able to run away with his family if there was a war in Daqi in the future.

When he first heard Wen Ming talk about what Cheng Yongzhen did, he thought that Cheng Yongzhen might want to do the same thing as him. But he soon realized that this was not the case.

“We won’t sail for the time being, so it doesn’t matter if we only do business with the eastern side.” Wen Ming said.

Jiang Zhen nodded, thinking that he had better find more men and train them.

Under Cheng Yongzhen hands there was said to be more than 100,000 people, compared to him he was still a small player.

Cheng Yongzhen’s affairs did not affect the business of Jiang Zhen and Wen Ming. When all the merchants who were supposed to come arrived, they sold all the goods in their hands and made a lot of money.

When all the goods were sold, Jiang Zhen and Wen Ming packed their things and took their families back to Wexing Province.

In modern times, if you didn’t go home for a few months, when you finally went back you might find a new building, but it’s different at this time.

Wexing Province was still the same, there were just more “Jinzhen“ flags than before on the docks.

Jiang Zhen got off the ship with his two children and several carriages immediately came.

“In the past, when I went out to visit my relatives, I had to endure a trip, but now everything has really changed.” Zhao Liu accompanied Zhao Jinge and his children in their stay by the sea. But now that it was time to return to Fucheng together, she couldn’t help but sigh for a moment.

In the past, it was so painful to travel far away! Now, everything has changed. Travel by ship and carriage was very comfortable.

Jiang Zhen smiled and helped Zhao Liu to the carriage, but he himself got on a horse next to it.

He prefers riding a horse than riding in a horse-drawn carriage.

When he rode the horse he was also carrying Zhao Mingzhu with him. Zhao Mingzhu was taken by him these days to climb high and low places as well as wander around so she was not even a little afraid of riding a horse.

The people on the dock saw this scene and someone couldn’t help asking: “Who are these people?”

“You don’t even know them? Did you see the one on the horse? That’s the head of the Jinzhen Escort Agency!”

“The head of the Jinzhen Escort Agency!? So young?”

“Yes, that’s how young he is! Moreover, apart from the Jinzhen Escort Agency he is also a sea merchant. I heard that he made a lot of money.”

“How impressive.”

 

…

 

People all around were talking, while in the crowd, a young man in his thirties, dressed in an old robe of a scholar, looked in the direction of the docks in a trance.

That person was Liao Qinghe.

What Liao Qinghe was watching was not Jiang Zhen but the Wen family that came back with Jiang Zhen.

Wen Yingniang was pregnant again.

After learning that Wen Yingniang was pregnant he once suspected that it was fake and felt that it was impossible that she could give birth. For this reason, he deliberately accepted two maids as his concubines.

However, even after three years those two maids have not become pregnant. Yet Wen Yingniang, who obviously did not spend a lot of time with her husband, was pregnant again.

Looking at the pregnant Wen Yingniang from a distance, Liao Qinghe’s heart was incomparably bitter.

Sometimes, when you have something you could only see its shortcomings, but when you lose it you couldn’t help but miss its good sides. Even memories that were replayed again and again become more beautiful.

Liao Qinghe used to be very unhappy with Wen Yingniang and felt that she had humiliated him, but now that he remembers . . .

When they were newly married, Wen Yingniang was very gentle with him.

Later, although the two of them often quarreled when he went home drunk, Wen Yingniang always prepared tea for him.

For so many years, Wen Yingniang had been his closest person, but now, he had lost her.

Liao Qing stumbled toward his house. As soon as he entered the door he heard the sound of a quarrel at home.

“Scold me more! If you have the ability, continue to curse! If you curse me again, I will go out and yell that my child is not from your family!” Lu Luan’s voice was the loudest.

Mother Liao muttered something but in the end didn’t dare to continue scolding.

Even though they had lost their dignity long ago, they still couldn’t bear to lose what was left of their pride, so they kept Lu Luan in their house together with her child.

“You’d better be nice to my daughter in the future, she’s the only blood in your family!” Lu Luan didn’t stop there, and continued.

Mother Liao’s expression froze.

When Liao Qinghe saw Lu Luan smug look, he wanted to go up and slap her. However, thinking of her threats, he didn’t dare to move.

He doesn’t want anyone to know that he couldn’t have a child.

For this reason, he even made a show of being infatuated with Wen Yingniang, swearing that he would never take a wife again.

Mother Liao couldn’t make Lu Luan to do anything, so in the end she had no choice but have Liao Qinghe and the two other concubines go to work.

The two women were once the maids of Wen Yingniang who always liked Liao Qinghe. When Lu Luan appeared they protected her, so Wen Yingniang did not take them away with her.

Later, they got into Liao Qinghe’s bed as they wished, but the life they led was not even comparable to that of Wen Yingniang’s maid.

The Liao family was now so poor that they drove all their servants away. So they not only had to do the rough work like pouring night incense but also spinning and weaving to support the Liao family, making them grow old quickly.

If they knew it would be like this, would they do such a thing in the first place?

 

Edited by: Antiope1

 

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